In the article Reuniting a Broken Family , Ginny Datesman's yearning for her siblings who were separated from one another at very young ages is likened to phantom pain from vestigial limbs of amputees. Her parents fell upon severe hardship, took an ad out in a newspaper and gave away all six of their children "like puppies" according to Ginny.
Many years later she says that she always felt the presence of her vestigial family and has since reunited with some her brothers and sisters. It's heartbreaking to imagine children being separated from one another in this way. The feeling must be similar to that experienced by adoptees and foundlings who never knew their siblings. Perhaps the pain is not as sharp, but the sensation of missing a part of oneself is not uncommon for these children as they mature. In my case, I dismissed the feelings as pure fantasy - wondering if there were someone else "out there" who looked like me, even a little. Could I have a brother, a sister, a twin? I always wondered. It never rose to the level of an obsession, but the feeling never completely left me, either. When I discovered through DNA testing that I did indeed did have a half-sibling, I was amazed to hear her say that she also had a feeling that she might have a sibling that she'd never met.
Some may say its hard to miss what you never had, but I submit that you can miss what you had - even if you didn't know you had it. Have you had feelings that someone is missing from your life? Have you tried DNA testing? Ancestry's having a 20% discount sale through 6/18 in observance of Fathers Day. If you have that feeling, don't ignore it. Your missing limb may be waiting to reunite with you.